Posted by Curiositry 12/16/2025
It turns out that what I wanted all along was the ability to seamlessly read books I buy from any source, not any deeper hacking of the OS.
Kudos to Kobo for keeping their system so open. These days it’s not that common
This is such an underrated feature. I used to own a Kindle before, and now a Kobo Libra. I'm very pleased and satisfied with the Kobo - something I rarely feel about consumer devices these days. Kobo should be proud of themselves for sticking to the principle. I will not spend my money on anything less open when it's time to replace it. I hope the vendors take note.
Freedom and openness should be considered as a feature for any product - perhaps the most important one. And us, consumers need to encourage and if possible, force the vendors using our collective purchasing power, to offer us that feature. I may be preaching to the choir here. But this message is well worth spreading among the public. Please do.
PS: I have seen DIY devices that are more open than Kobo. But Kobo is also the most viable option here. Please mention any alternatives that you know of.
I noticed that there is also this issue open https://github.com/booklore-app/booklore/issues/1898 so it sounds like the core of the feature is there but they are still ironing out all the kinks
(I used to run flashcards on a Palm Pilot back in the days. The app was called SuperMemo.)
I've actually since graduated to a 10.3" Boox E-ink tablet. It's too big for AnkiDroid or book reading, but it is terrific for note taking during meetings or lectures, reading and annotating technical documentation, calendar management, and web browsing. My next gift to self will either be a Tesla Roadster or a 7" E-ink device for AnkiDroid and books!
Why so passionate, I hear you ask? Pretty much exactly the reasons you specify - unlike other hardware, I actually can do what I want with it.
And now I'm wondering what this Quill OS is about. Thanks Kobo!
There is a config file on the stock OS that you just need to change, and you can point the Kobo store to your own instance of Calibre Web.
This lets you sync and download your own books to the device over wifi.
I played around with KOReader a bit but found the stock software simpler to use. All I really need is to not be tied to an ebook store.
I was sad to hear newer Kobo devices are shipping with Secure Boot. I've never reflashed my Libra H2O (it's my daughter's and I'd never be able to get it away from her long enough to replace it) but I liked knowing that I owned the device. I'm sad to hear the new ones are owner-hostile.
A quick config change to the store URL to point to Calibre Web, and some setup in Calibre Web and you're good to go.
This is the guide I followed: https://brandonjkessler.com/technology/2021/04/26/setup-kobo...
I don't care about secure boot / a locked bootloader so much as the ability to unlock it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/kobo/comments/1nahk6f/got_calibrewe...
That’s awesome. Going to add this change to my Kobo - I already self host a bunch of stuff on a Pi, will add Calibre to the list
what did you change?
It took me some getting used to but it's not bad IMO. It's more that its conventions are a bit different from the commercial readers but that's not a bad thing.
Koreader's OPDS implementation is VERY rough around the edges. It doesn't support much of the metadata and doesn't follow the spec very well. I had to write hacks in Kavita to give users better support for it. (My understanding is Koreader isn't too hot on OPDS in general).
And recommendation caroussels are a bit too much like advertising to me. Something I wouldn't want on self-hosted stuff.
Everyone here is lauding kobo for being so 'open' and 'hackable', but when I set mine up in 2022 it kind of just felt like they just weren't as good at fucking me over and subverting my intentions as Amazon. Kind of like being an intruder in your own home. Have things changed? Should I update my setup?
Apparently they're working on a new OS based on the Pine64 Pinenote* but it's almost $400!
The Pocketbook synchronizes reading between several devices, even for books you have uploaded yourself.
And the Pocketbook has text-to-speech and supports audiobooks.
I really liked the idea of using them, and while I did take one on holiday once, I found that I just couldn't put up with the slow speed of page transitions and the screen flickering every page turn.
For the speed issue, if it's limited by the time to render a page, I wondered why they wouldn't just cache the rendered previously page and pre-generate the next page while you were reading the first.
I understand why the page flickers, but it always seemed to me that doing partial refreshes of the screen would be much better aesthetically. Maybe the more recent ones actually do that, although I got the impression that manufacturers had just moved back to LCD screens because people liked colours more than battery life. Certainly not long after I bought my Kobo, my mum upgraded from an e-ink Kindle to an LCD one which seemed like a step backwards to me, but she was much happier with it.
So, just wondering if any of the issues around page turning are addressed in this custom OS and app. If so, I'll dig around in my junk box to try it out. Otherwise I guess they're likely to stay there for another decade!
It's not, it's a physical limitation of the e-ink screen.
Any e-reader I've seen does full refresh every n pages where n is user-settable.
Well but this is exactly what they do ahahaha x) You can set how many page turns between full refreshes in the settings.
From what I remember, mine always fully turns black then clears before rendering. Even big areas of the page that are white both before and after, there was always a full screen black flash. I wouldn't be at all bothered if it was just the areas with text that went fully black before clearing, but it's very jarring full screen.
That said I have a 2012 Kobo Mini with the option in stock firmware (and an undocumented "only refresh when I choose to" setting too). Maybe there's a firmware update for yours that would add it?
What I really want is for the framebuffer to remember past pixels, so that the blacking out is restricted to only areas where there previously were pixel. I don't really mind noise on where the text was while the page is replaced, it the big areas flashing black needlessly that's distracting.
I might try out this firmware over the holidays though. If I get back into using the kobo as an e-reader, maybe I'll look at the issue myself now that it's open source, if it's not been addressed by someone already.
For the stock reader I believe this was the option I changed to disable automatic refresh entirely : https://old.reddit.com/r/kobo/comments/pbqey3/page_refresh_i...
Part of the motivation derived from newer Kobos deploying with SecureBoot, making it tough to reflash them.
Being able to strip drm is good. But, it's stepwise refinement warfare. In the meantime, being able to run a copy of the Google Android kindle reader, and obtain a valid licence-to-read key is useful. I'm not disparaging calibre or apprentice Alf, I'm just pointing out the more compliant path also exists.
That's what boox does. It's clear android can do this. I suppose what I'm asking is can these debian style OS run enough emulation/compatibility libraries to run an Android kindle app?
I have a paperwhite theater I bought years ago from Woot for like $30 and I simply never logged in or even connected it to wifi, so I get no ads and I don't buy DRM-laden books from Amazon. Calibre turns DRM-free epubs into Kindle accepted mobi format seemlessly on upload.
I can't help but think that those who complain about the lock-in but simply never bother to break free, just don't care that much. Shaking a fist at Amazon feels more like a self-soothing exercise to allay the cognitive dissonance that arises from telling oneself that you agree with those who curse Amazon (or what it represents) while you continue to choose Amazon.
It's apparently rootable, although I haven't done that personally. It's Google Play certified so anything from the Play store works, and side loading Android apps works too. I use it with the open source KOReader app and in tandem with Calibre Web Automated. I did a writeup[0] with some details if you're interested.
[0] https://blog.eldrid.ge/2025/03/12/self-hosted-ebook-manageme...
I also wrote a short write-up about my experience with PocketBook devices and KOReader, for anyone who's interested: https://tc3.eu/posts/pocketbook-era-with-koreader/
The Remarkable 2 has an e-ink display but is rather underpowered as an e-reader. It does have an SDK for building apps: https://developer.remarkable.com/documentation/sdk
However, for reading technical docs or workshop docs in daylight, it's great.
Does anyone know what the mainline support is like nowadays, and whether widely packaged software can make it usable as an ebook reader?
https://git.sr.ht/~hrdl/linux/log/v6.17-rc5_pinenote has many commits.